Request for jail funds blasted

Updated 10:32 pm, Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Bexar commissioners decried the Sheriff's Office on Tuesday for requesting almost $1 million in additional funding for the county jail and undoing some cuts imposed during last year's budget.

The number of inmates in the jail has declined in the past few years, from 4,500 to about 3,700. The jail's budget, however, remained largely flat until last year, when it was cut by $4 million and 100 positions were lost through attrition.

“What the sheriff is asking is for us to cancel the work we did during budget time,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Paul Elizondo, who pinned the overruns on former jail administrator Roger Dovalina.

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Elizondo said he had hoped the savings would allow them to put more patrol officers on the street.

Ultimately, the commissioners and county judge approved diverting the funds after County Manager David Smith said that the jail would be unable to purchase essential supplies unless the money were provided.

The funds will be used to pay other counties for housing Bexar County inmates, even though county budget officials say the jail has about 500 fewer inmates than it is staffed to maintain.

Deputy Chief Debra Jordan, who oversees administration at the Sheriff's Office, told the commissioners that resources at the jail have been stretched thin, forcing them to send inmates to other counties.

“Our staff has just been burned out,” she said.

The jail — county government's single biggest budget expense — long has been a source of frustration for the commissioners and a steady stream of material for Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz's critics.

Ortiz insists the county doesn't provide enough funding to staff the jail, while the county's finance staff has insisted that the overruns are a product of poor management.

“Unless jail population passes 3,800, there would be no reason to ship inmates out of county,” said Smith, in an interview after the commissioner's court meeting. “The population has not justified shipping (inmates) out of county or the amount of overtime he (Ortiz) has used.”

The Republican candidate for Sheriff, Susan Pamerleau, said the request for extra money was part of a pattern of Ortiz's poor management of the office.

Pamerleau called for a “long-term, reasoned view of how we can best house inmates and also manage the manpower,” at the jail. “That's what management and leadership is about,” she said, adding that she couldn't comment further on the matter because she hadn't seen the details.

Ortiz rejected the assertion that the extra $1 million for the jail was the result of mismanagement.

“We asked for a reasonable amount of money to run the jail and (Commissioners Court) slashed it,” he said. “It happens every year. It's nothing unusual.”